Welcome! ברוכים הבאים!

Gosh, I'm so happy you found this blog! Welcome! 

A little about me: Hi, I'm Tamar, or using my and my husband's initials תלם, pronounced Telem. A telem in Hebrew is a rut in the ground where seeds are sown. More on that shortly. 

I'm an orthodox Jewish mom on a mission to spread Jewish joy. The interesting thing about being orthodox is that many people have heard about us but most people haven't met one of us. In that vacuum, some might assume that all those negative media depictions are accurate and that we spend our days sitting in a box of rules and wait for the day to break free. This is a stereotype and like all stereotypes there are reasons for why they exist. Still, only a wilfully ignorant person would go so far as to reduce a minority people to their worst, dysfunctional members. 

I didn't grow up religious so I think it's fair to say I can understand the perspectives of Jewish and Nonjewish people. Where I grew up most people will never meet Jews. That's why I think it's so important for me, an orthodox Jew, to speak about what my life is really like and about what brings me joy. There's a lot of diversity in the Jewish community and all should be heard. 

Love is an area where a lot of frankly weird stereotypes circulate. Yes, there are rules. However those rules exist for a reason. Generally speaking my favorite part of stories is the romantic main- or subplot and while romance novels with orthodox characters exist, concepts like shomer negia, which prohibits the touch of unmarried females and males, are often treated as an afterthought or worse yet as a fetish. 

So here I am, Telem, making a rut in the ground and sowing some seeds of my own writing. I sprinkle them with Jewish joy and I hope they will grow and blossom. I hope you will follow me along as I share my creative process, speak from the heart and try not to get too big of a head.

Some upcoming topics:

- My Orthodox author heros

- The 'accidental' touch trope

- Why I gave up writing and started again

- Love stories of the Torah and beyond

- Where I get my ideas

- Sephardic and Mizrahi representation 

- My favorite Sephardic recipes